John William Davis (1873-1955) was a prominent American lawyer, diplomat, and politician, best known for his service in high-level government positions under President Woodrow Wilson and as the Democratic presidential nominee in 1924. Born on April 13, 1873, in Clarksburg, West Virginia, to a family of lawyers—his father was John J. Davis, a Confederate congressman—Davis graduated from Washington and Lee University with a law degree in 1892. Admitted to the Virginia bar in 1895, he returned to Clarksburg to practice law from 1897 to 1913, where he built a reputation defending corporate interests, particularly railroads, despite his populist rhetoric. His early political career included election to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1898, ending a long Republican hold, and service as president of the West Virginia Bar Association in 1906. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1910, representing West Virginia's 2nd district, Davis's tenure was brief but marked his rising national profile. From 1913 to 1918, Davis served as Solicitor General of the United States, arguing over 50 cases before the Supreme Court and advising on key legal matters during World War I. He then became U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1921, navigating post-war diplomacy, and participated as one of Wilson's advisers at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. After returning to the U.S., Davis joined the New York law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he became a leading corporate lawyer with deep ties to Wall Street. In 1924, he secured the Democratic presidential nomination on the 103rd ballot at a fractious convention, but lost decisively to incumbent Republican Calvin Coolidge amid the Teapot Dome scandal's shadow on the Democrats. A founding member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in 1921, Davis maintained influence in elite diplomatic and financial circles, arguing landmark cases like Brown v. Board of Education (1952) on behalf of states' rights. He died on March 24, 1955, in Charleston, South Carolina, leaving a legacy as a conservative Democrat and constitutional scholar.